Revealing Eden (Save the Pearls 1) by Victoria Foyt

Published: Jan 10th, 2012

Publisher: Sand Dollar Press

Pages: 321

ecopy: Courtesy of Netgalley and publisher

Summary: Goodreads

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

This has been a very hard review to write.  I enjoyed Revealing Eden, but I'm not entirely sure that I understood it!  I've been trying to come up with a description for it and the best I can do is a futuristic, dystopian Beauty and the Beast.  The world has obviously suffered some kind of event, but I don't remember any kind of explanation as to why it is too hot for anyone other than dark-skinned coals to go outside.  Perhaps that's because my reading of this book was a little disjointed.  I couldn't seem to find the time to sit down for any great length of time, and kept reading in 10 minute chunks.

Eden seems to be a little conflicted and she keeps talking about not being understood and no-one seeing the 'real' Eden, but I'm not sure I ever saw the real her either.  She is a victim of deceit, which I can't go into without giving spoilers, her life is ruled by the fact that she needs to find a 'mate' before her 18th birthday, but she seemed to be suffering from tunnel vision in this respect.  Ignoring the light- skinned pearls and focusing on the coals.  Wouldn't it be better to find any mate, rather than no mate at all. Eden's father is a very clever geneticist and he is working on a 'cure' for humanity - by turning them into beasts?   Confusing.  Ronson Bramford - well he both fascinated and infuriated me.  In some respects he was a controlling ass and in others an intriguing genius. I was definitely conflicted about him.

There is fair bit of tension throughout the book and I did enjoy Ms Foyt's writing style . I didn't once consider not finishing the book, but I have a lot of questions.  What I'd really like to do is sit down and talk to someone else who has read this and see what they think - which in the end is a good thing, right.  Any book that can generate discussion has succeeded.  Will I read the sequel - probably yes, because I just don't know where Ms Foyt plans on going and I'm curious. I'd really like to know what others thought of this one.

Check out the website here http://www.savethepearls.com/ and the youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/savethepearls

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